1. I'm a little confused why you would object to JavaScript as a first language. You're using it to teach very basic concepts like variables and conditionals. Who cares about polymorphism at that stage?
2. Creating a Web App to follow programming concepts is something John Resig knows how to do. Check out his Advanced JavaScript page for examples:
3. No installation needed. No one has to have permissions to install or modify software or the OS. That's a huge hurdle. If you're at a public library or borrowing your brother's computer, you don't have to worry about permissions, settings, downloads, etc. You're already setup to start with just learning.
Obviously, to become a better programmer you have to learn some more languages, but JavaScript is not going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, there is a higher demand for JavaScript programmers than ever. Why not learn it?
2. Creating a Web App to follow programming concepts is something John Resig knows how to do. Check out his Advanced JavaScript page for examples:
http://ejohn.org/apps/learn/
3. No installation needed. No one has to have permissions to install or modify software or the OS. That's a huge hurdle. If you're at a public library or borrowing your brother's computer, you don't have to worry about permissions, settings, downloads, etc. You're already setup to start with just learning.
Obviously, to become a better programmer you have to learn some more languages, but JavaScript is not going anywhere anytime soon. In fact, there is a higher demand for JavaScript programmers than ever. Why not learn it?